Letters from loving grandmother, a personal exhibition

Javier Encalada | 16th Apr 2015 10:42 AM

*Link to original article here

Judy Cassab, Dear Bodhi, when I asked you on the telephone 1986, watercolour and ink on paper, 44.5 x 28cm, Judy Cassab. Licensed by Viscopy, 2015. Contributed

Art exhibitions don't get more personal than this.

Bodhi Seed is a Northern Rivers musician whose grandmother is one of Australia's most important living painters: Judy Cassab.

Judy Cassab won the Archibald Prize twice in the 1960s and was the first female painter to receive such accolade.

She is one of the most important portrait painters Australia has ever produced, but her other styles of art are not less important in her body of work.

Dear Bodhi is a collection of letters beautifully illustrated by the artist to her grandson.

There are also portraits of the family and paintings Cassab has made of some of the region's well known beauty spots.

The show also includes some diary excerpts by the artist, providing a rare record of the counter-culture movement in the Northern Rivers, and life at Tuntable Falls Community and then Bodhi Farm.

Bodhi and his father, John Seed, have collaborated with the Lismore Regional Gallery to share this very intimate collection with the community.

Northern Rivers residents, musician Bodhi Seed and environmentalist John Seed. Contributed

At 94, Mrs Cassab, who lives in Sydney, will not be able to attend this exhibition, but Bodhi said she is very excited about it.

"I saw her last week in Sydney and she was very excited about it," he said.

"We will take photos and videos of it to show her next time we visit her. She will be very happy."

Dear Bodhi by Judy Cassab will be opening tomorrow at 6pm at the Lismore Regional Gallery, 131 Molesworth St, Lismore, with words from pioneering environmental activist John Seed and music by Bodhi Seed.

Click here to see a virtual exhibition of Judy Cassab's paintings throughout her life.